- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Lake County schools prepare for state’s new COVID-19 vaccination and testing order for teachers, staff
The California Department of Public Health on Wednesday issued a public health order requiring all school staff to either show proof of full vaccination or be tested at least once per week.
The state said the new policy takes effect Thursday, Aug. 12, and schools must be in full compliance by Oct. 15.
“It is a surprise,” Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg said of the new vaccination and testing mandate.
“We as educators are planners, and we like to just follow the plan,” he said.
In this case, there was little time to plan or prepare for the new rules the state handed down this week.
Falkenberg told Lake County News that, normally, when such orders or mandates are about to be released, he’ll get several days’ worth of warnings.
However, in this instance, he got the first notice about the impending public health order announcement at 11 p.m. Tuesday.
“We are still trying to look at the details of what was said and what is the California Department of Public Health order, because that’s really what counts,” Falkenberg said Wednesday evening.
“We’re still trying to really understand that language,” and understand how it will impact the Lake County Office of Education and all of the county’s districts and schools, he said.
Once they get a better understanding of the mandate, Falkenberg said the Office of Education will provide guidance and support to the county’s school districts.
The state’s new health order comes as Lake County schools are welcoming students back to class for the new academic year.
Lakeport Unified, Lucerne Elementary and Upper Lake Unified had their first day of school on Wednesday, with Konocti Unified and Middletown Unified set to return on Aug. 16 and Kelseyville Unified on Sept. 7.
Falkenberg said he visited every campus on Wednesday where classes had started and there was great school turnout.
In Lucerne and Upper Lake, schools had been open all of last year. “Their families have already been through this,” said Falkenberg, noting the schools have invested the time and energy to develop that trust. “Their turnout is very, very high for face-to-face instruction.”
Falkenberg said he’s interested to see what turnout is like in other districts that were only in session for a matter of months last year. “We don’t know what those numbers look like yet.”
While Lakeport schools looked very well attended on Wednesday, he said it was the first day of school, and enrollment numbers are not required to be submitted by districts until the first week of October. At that time, a clearer picture should emerge of school enrollments.
Making adjustments
“Every county, every community is different,” said Falkenberg, and small counties like Lake have decisions imposed on them by the state that are really meant to impact larger counties.
As the Office of Education works on understanding the new mandate, one of the questions already coming up is who will pay for it.
That was a question raised by the Lake County Board of Education, which had a regular meeting on Wednesday.
During his report to the board, Falkenberg updated trustees on the new guidance and they asked him about who will pay for testing.
He said the state will, in fact, cover those costs.
Falkenberg said Lake County’s schools and Public Health have built a strong working relationship around pandemic-related issues, discussing requirements and needs, and creating partnerships to meet them.
The districts have worked with Public Health to provide rapid tests and Public Health has supported the schools with free testing. Now, however, Falkenberg said to continue to get free testing, schools need to go through the California Department of Education. The only cost to schools is for the shipping.
The new vaccination guidance, however, doesn’t take into account the limited number of school nurses, said Falkenberg.
“School nurses are in short supply across the state,” and even the Office of Education doesn’t have its own nurse, he said.
“The cost of time, coordination and resources to do the testing is certainly something the districts will have to bear,” although Falkenberg said the state and federal governments have provided an ample amount of funding to work testing into school plans.
The vaccination effort
The effort to get vaccinations for those teachers and school staff who wanted them has been going on for many months.
“The county Office of Education coordinated with public health to fill all available slots in January and February with educators, school staff, including the community college staff, and eventually our preschool and child care staff,” said Falkenberg.
At one point, he said they had an idea of the number of staff members from each district that wanted to be vaccinated, but did not have a list of names. “We didn’t want a name as an agency, we just wanted numbers.”
Falkenberg said the Office of Education worked with district superintendents to develop an equitable plan of vaccine distribution around the county.
They wanted to meet the needs of those in front of students first, so they started with Lucerne and Upper Lake school staffs, as they were back to in-person classes before the other districts.
On Wednesday, Falkenberg said he didn’t know how many individuals actually followed through and got vaccinated or who got vaccinated since then and didn’t’ come through the schools’ sign-up process. “I don’t know that anyone has that number.”
In addition, following guidance from the California Department of Public Health and Cal/OSHA, Falkenberg said the Office of Education entered into a process to allow office staff to start removing masks by either showing proof of vaccination or other medical reasons for not masking.
Based on the new guidance, Falkenberg said the districts need to know who has been vaccinated. “That's the first step that needs to happen.”
He said county superintendents have regular Friday lunch Zoom meetings and he expects the new vaccination guidance will be a key topic of upcoming meetings.
In a letter to parents issued on July 30, interim Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Charlie Evans said vaccination rates for children ages 12 to 19 was 19%. “When schools resume, all
students will be asked to mask while indoors, until we reach an immunity level through vaccination that is enough to sustain us at a very low infection rate.”
Evans asked parents to take their children who qualify for vaccination to their primary care doctor or a vaccination clinic for evaluation and treatment with the COVID-19 vaccine, which he said was the primary method of helping Lake County achieve the goal of keeping schools open for in-classroom teaching throughout the year.
He also asked people to follow the “Three Ws” — “Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Watch your distance.”
The Office of Education put together vaccination and testing teams several months ago. Falkenberg said the vaccination team focuses on 12- to 18-year-olds but will vaccinate anyone who shows up who wants the shot, he said.
Falkenberg said the testing team was formed as a partnership between the Office of Education, Lucerne Elementary, Upper Lake Unified and the Lake County International Charter School, and he said they’ve been providing testing as requested for many months.
One of Falkenberg’s immediate concerns is how the new mandate will impact those vaccination and testing teams.
Now that either vaccination or testing is required, Falkenberg said the question is whether they will be able to support that team, which is why they need to find out how many people have been vaccinated.
“I think a lot is going to become more evident over the next day or two,” Falkenberg said.
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